138-78 B.C. page two
He hospitably entertained the king's ambassadors on their
escape from some Numidian robbers, and after showing them much
kindness, sent them on their journey with presents, and an escort to
protect them. Bocchus had long hated and dreaded his son-in-law,
Jugurtha, who had now been worsted in the field and had fled to him
for shelter; and it so happened he was at this time entertaining a
design to betray him. He accordingly invited Sylla to come to him,
wishing the seizure and surrender of Jugurtha to be effected rather
through him, than directly by himself.
Sylla, when he had communicated
the business to Marius, and received from him a small detachment,
voluntarily put himself into this imminent danger; and confiding in
a barbarian, who had been unfaithful to his own relations, to
apprehend another man's person, made surrender of his own. Bocchus,
having both of them now in his power, was necessitated to betray one
or other, and after long debate with himself, at last resolved on
his first design, and gave up Jugurtha into the hands of Sylla.
For this Marius triumphed, but the glory of the enterprise, which
through people's envy of Marius was ascribed to Sylla, secretly
grieved him. And the truth is, Sylla himself was by nature
vainglorious, and this being the first time that from a low and
private condition he had risen to esteem amongst the citizens and
tasted of honour, his appetite for distinction carried him to such a
pitch of ostentation, that he had a representation of this action
engraved on a signet ring, which he carried about with him, and made
use of ever after. The impress was Bocchus delivering, and Sylla
receiving, Jugurtha.
This touched Marius to the quick; however,
judging Sylla to be beneath his rivalry, he made use of him as
lieutenant, in his second consulship, and in his third as tribune; and
many considerable services were effected by his means. When acting
as lieutenant he took Copillus, chief of the Tectosages, prisoner, and
compelled the Marsians, a great and populous nation, to become friends
and confederates of the Romans.
Henceforward, however, Sylla, perceiving that Marius bore a
jealous eye over him, and would no longer afford him opportunities
of action, but rather opposed his advance, attached himself to
Catulus, Marius's colleague, a worthy man, but not energetic enough as
a general. And under this commander, who intrusted him with the
highest and most important commissions, he rose at once to
reputation and to power.
He subdued by arms most part of the Alpine
barbarians; and when there was a scarcity in the armies, he took
that care upon himself and brought in such a store of provisions as
not only to furnish the soldiers of Catulus with abundance, but
likewise to supply Marius. This, as he writes himself, wounded
Marius to the very heart. So slight and childish were the first
occasions and motives of that enmity between them, which, passing
afterwards through a long course of civil bloodshed and incurable
divisions to find its end in tyranny, and the confusion of the whole
state, proved Euripides to have been truly wise and thoroughly
acquainted with the causes of disorders in the body politic, when he
forewarned all men to beware of Ambition, as of all the higher
Powers the most destructive and pernicious to her votaries.
Sylla, by this time thinking that the reputation of his arms
abroad was sufficient to entitle him to a part in the civil
administration, betook himself immediately from the camp to the
assembly, and offered himself as a candidate for a praetorship, but
failed. The fault of this disappointment he wholly ascribes to the
populace, who, knowing his intimacy with King Bocchus, and for that
reason expecting, that if he was made aedile before his praetorship,
he would then show them magnificent hunting-shows and combats
between Libyan wild beasts, chose other praetors, on purpose to
force him into the aedileship.
The vanity of this pretext is
sufficiently disproved by matter-of-fact. For the year following,
partly by flatteries to the people, and partly by money, he got
himself elected praetor. Accordingly, once while he was in office,
on his angrily telling Caesar that he should make use of his authority
against him, Caesar answered him with a smile, "You do well to call it
your own, as you bought it."
At the end of his praetorship he was sent
over into Cappadocia, under the pretence of reestablishing
Ariobarzanes in his kingdom, but in reality to keep in check the
restless movements of Mithridates, who was gradually procuring himself
as vast a new acquired power and dominion as was that of his ancient
inheritance. He carried over with him no great forces of his own,
but making use of the cheerful aid of the confederates, succeeded,
with considerable slaughter of the Cappadocians, and yet greater of
the Armenian succours, in expelling Gordius and establishing
Ariobarzanes as king.
During his stay on the banks of the Euphrates, there came to him
Orobazus, a Parthian, ambassador from King Arsaces, as yet there
having been no correspondence between the two nations. And this also
we may lay to the account of Sylla's felicity, that he should be the
first Roman to whom the Parthians made address for alliance and
friendship.
At the time of which reception, the story is, that, having
ordered three chairs of state to be set, one for Ariobarzanes, one for
Orobazus, and a third for himself, he placed himself in the middle,
and so gave audience. For this the King of Parthia afterwards put
Orobazus to death. Some people commended Sylla for his lofty
carriage towards the barbarians; others again accused him of arrogance
and unseasonable display.
He was chosen quaestor to Marius in his first consulship, and set
sail with him for Libya, to war upon Jugurtha. Here, in general, he
gained approbation; and more especially, by closing in dexterously
with an accidental occasion, made a friend of Bocchus, King of
Numidia.